Faith Under Fire: The Church's Response to Persecution

Introduction

"Persecution has always produced a better Christian — a witnessing Christian, a soul-winning Christian. The Bible is full of accounts of persecution. Christ Himself was persecuted. He expects His followers to endure it too. Prayer was our breath, our hope, and our shield." -Richard Wurmbrand

Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian pastor who spent 14 years imprisoned, starting in 1948 under Soviet controled Romania, and tortured for his faith under Communist rule, yet never stopped preaching Christ — later founding The Voice of the Martyrs to support persecuted Christians worldwide.

Persecution to the church is nothing new, it has been present since the beginning

We have been away from our study of acts for a few weeks so lets recap what has happened up to this point:

After His resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with the disciples and promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. He then ascended, and the disciples replaced Judas by choosing Matthias. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came with power, and Peter preached boldly, leading about 3,000 people to salvation. Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple gate, which drew a large crowd. Peter again preached about Jesus' resurrection, leading to more conversions but also to their arrest by the Jewish leaders. Despite threats, Peter and John fearlessly testified about Jesus, insisting that they could not help but speak about what they had seen and heard.

Which all this now brings us to Acts 4:23

Which brings out a beautiful fact, the disciples when faced with persecution did not run from their faith, but ran to the church, the community of faith

They did not debate on laying low for a spell, they gathered like normal and continued to persevere

The Churches Response to Persecution (v. 24-30)

Acts 4 is the first recorded instances of the Christian church being persecuted and how did they respond, with prayer

What did this prayer consist of:

One it consisted of worship

It did not have a tone of fear or desperation.

They were not wringing their hands, but raising hands and bowing heads

Which is also exactly what Daniel did when the threat of persecution came

Daniel 6:10 ESV

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.

As a true believer their is no hiding the fact you are a worshiper of God

As a believer it becomes a natural flow as we grow closer to God

In a Muslim country a brother realized his sister had became a Christian

What tipped him off? her joy, she was full of joy

he went to her and asked if she was a Christian

She said yes and he told her she had three hours to change her mind, during this time she did not try to run, but rather typed her testimony and got it out on the web

Her brother returned and she stood firm and she gave her life up for the sake of the Gospel

What would be our attitude against true persecution?

Would our habits be enough to convict us, as they did Daniel?

Would our joy set us apart as it did the former Muslim girl?

Or would we be a bunch of chameleons?

If you would be a chameleon, you need to truly question the authenticity of your faith

In this attitude of worship they acknowledged several things:

Acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the Lord

This acknowledgment encompasses that the entirety of this world is within God’s domain

The same Lord that exist within the 4 walls of a church, exist and reigns within he four walls of a jail cell

Meaning the same God who sustains me here can sustain me behind bars

As hard as people try, it is impossible to place limits on where God can go

Consisted of Scripture (Psalm 2)

This attitude of worship came from hearts that had spent time with Lord

If you continue to read Psalm 2 it is a Psalm that declares the sovereignty of the Lord and that those who oppose the Lord will face his wrath

Wrath is the Lord’s not ours

Acknowledgment of God working through persecution

What a change in understanding verses 27 & 28 show

Last few weeks we talked of Psalm 22 of how it can help us through times of suffering and how it could carried the disciples through a time they lacked understanding

Here now a few months later they were testifying to how God used the wicked to accomplish his plan for salvation

Having times throughout the year where we pause to reflect can have powerful implications as we look back to see how God has been faithful and how he has worked wonders in the good and bad times

Request for boldness to keep preaching as God continued to work miracles

Which is a beautiful way to end the prayer, it was not resentment for enemies, it was not for deliverance from their enemies, it was not for judgment on their enemies, but for boldness to keep going on (other words to do what got them jailed with even more boldness) and for God to keep doing works to open doors for that boldness to shin e through with the Gospel light

They realized by their own strength their boldness would not continue or doors would not continue to open

But if they looked to God for sustaining power they would continue

They realized they could not walk through doors opened by themselves, but they had a responsibility to walk through doors opened by God

As Henry Blackaby says in Experiencing God:

Find out where God is working and join Him there.

Because as D.L. Moody says:

Our work is to make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit, who alone can make our efforts effective.

Stop trying to break down doors, that is not what you are called to do

You are called to walk through the doors God opens

Don’t encourage people to put up more locks and stronger doors by going into places you have not been invited by the Spirit to do so

Force is not a kingdom method, but obedience and trusting God’s timing is

When the doors open walk through them humbly

And as I wrote this week I could not but help to think of how this is still the response of the persecuted church today

They constantly pray for strength and boldness, not for the persecution to end, and rarely not for their safety

They also do not ask for help getting out of these countries but request Christian resources (https://www.persecution.com/bibles/)

A few quotes from believers today:

A Christian pastor in Iran: "We are not afraid of prison. We are not afraid of being killed. We are afraid of living a life without bearing fruit."

A believer from North Korea: "Don't pray for us to be freed from persecution. Pray that we remain faithful, no matter the cost."

A Nigerian Christian widow after her husband was martyred: "They took his life, but they could not take Jesus from me."

A house church leader in China: "Persecution is a gift. It purifies the church."

Outro (V. 31)

These prayers are answered and the Spirit filled them with boldness

My questions for you this morning as we enter a time of invitation and reflection are:

Are we trying to force our way, or are we following the Spirit’s lead?

Would our habits convict us as true worshipers if persecution came today?

Are we bold enough to pray, not for ease, but for faithfulness and fruitfulness?